President Yar’Adua: Will Our Voices Be Heard?

By

Abdullah Musa

kigongabas@yahoo.com

Democracy can only be possible with the provision that the citizens get represented in governance. This seems rather obvious to common sense, for in which kind of hall are we to be able to house 140 million Nigerians, and how many terms of office do we require hearing and meeting all the aspirations of the stated number?

Nigerians have a President-elect in the person of Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua. After eight years of President Obasanajo’s earth-shaking tenure, many citizens feel that they need a change in leadership style; even in the programs that government executes on behalf of the people.

We are informed by experts, that it is highly unlikely to meet two people of exactly the same disposition to everything; they may think and act alike in many respects, but not in all issues. We believe therefore that when Yar’Adua takes over the mantle of leadership there must be changes for precisely the same reason that he cannot be an Obasanjo even if he were inclined to go for plastic surgery.

What irked Nigerians during the two terms of president Obasanjo was what they termed his insensitivity. He was accused of not caring about the well being of Nigerians. His policies, many believed were geared to please the IMF and World Bank rather than those who elected him. On the sideline, and much more than the grouse of the masses, President Obasanjo refused to tow the line that the act of governance should be business as usual: he refrained, so to speak, to oil the machinery that schemed to bring him to power.

Now the searchlight would move from the rugged terrain of Chief Obasanjo’s face, to the somewhat somber or lackluster disposition of Yar’adua. We are forced to ask a fundamental question: if a leader, particularly a President were to listen to the people of Nigeria, how would he govern? And we ask again, are the people always right?

The newspapers, the radio and television sets, spew out on daily basis the travails of Nigerians: hunger, unemployment, poor accommodation, insecurity, poor educational services and the likes. So if any government were to be responsive to the yearnings of the people, it should articulate programs that would seek to ameliorate the above-mentioned problems during its term of office. The fact that the problems have stayed long with us, I believe that people would be realistic enough to believe that progress would be gradual.

President Obasanjo spent greater part of his two terms in office building, (if you want to be charitable to him) a new foundation of the Nigerian State. He strove extremely hard to push for privatization of key national assets; solved the problem of foreign debts; and introduced due diligence in dealings between the business class and the federal government. He also sought to challenge and fight corruption head-on. However, his poverty alleviation programs failed. President Obasanjo could not be able to alter positively, the supply of electricity to consumers. More worrying, was his inability to protect Nigerians from armed robbers and hired killers. Niger Delta, from where we derive the oil wealth to fund our laziness is in turmoil, no solution in sight.

A pessimist from a poll of public opinion conducted by Business Day newspaper said that Yar’Adua does not have the mandate of the people to govern, as such he has no any expectation that he would be able to deliver. If we will not tire of asking questions, we may ask: whose President would Yar’Adua be?

Let’s deviate a little, in order to highlight the types of citizens that any person unfortunate to be Nigeria’s President is saddled with, to either lead or govern. The average Nigerian believes that Government is there to serve him or her. That is perfectly in order, in so far there is recognition of a part or role that the citizen should also play. Leaders in Nigeria are supremely comfortable; the comforts of course provided from State resources. The citizens thus come to expect that having been insured against the vagaries of the daily life in underdeveloped country such as ours, the leader should also devote thought and energy on how to make life better for the generality of people.

Without relevant statistics at my finger tips, I may be in error to say that most Nigerians are self-employed either as farmers, artisans or retailers. The biggest employer of labor is of course the Government: Federal, State or Local. Unemployment is thus more the problem of the youths who passed through Western School system or those who followed the traditional Islamic Quranic system, but got lured by the ‘glitters’ of the city, and refused to go back to their villages after completing school.

Government employment over the years was directed more by the need to provide a social safety net, than a real need for better services. This anomaly ensured the bloating of the most unproductive sectors of the service, and more devastating, the thin spread of the amount payable as salaries and wages. The tragedy being that somebody can be employed at full time job, but qualifies to be called a poor man, university graduates inclusive.

Public Office in Nigeria has afforded those who were lucky to have secured it in whatever capacity, ranging from Chief Executives to Legislators, access to tremendous wealth. This wealth is flaunted, and it serves as a beckoner to others, so that elections must really be a do-or die affair. This lesson is well received by millions, such that honest striving, with rewards coming in trickles is frowned upon, and evaded if possible. In summary, Nigerians are a people with the highest expectation from those who govern them. To repeat our question then: whose President would Yar’Adua be?

The elite’s: this is the privileged class. They run the show, and they are the greatest beneficiaries. The new president must work with them, and may have to exercise supreme resistance not to be hijacked by them. Does Yar Adua possess any special tact to keep them happy without harming the masses?

The farmers’: they may be the largest group within the electorate. They are not able to survive without subsidy. Most of them live at subsistence level. Most of them lack modern education, nor are they equipped with modern farming techniques. The education of their young ones is a great burden without state support. Their President would be one who would help them increase the output of their farms, lessen the drudgery in farming, and lessen the burden of education from their shoulders.

The civil servants’:  the top echelon of the service is usually comfortable at the expense of the service to the voiceless. Those at the base of the service pyramid are also burdened by cost of education and health care. They live at subsistence level. And because of the nature of staffing policies hinted earlier, their jobs are dull, without fulfillment. Their motivation is to move up the ladder in order to be able to dip their hands in the treasury. A sound functional public educational system, a functional health insurance scheme, a functional and affordable mortgage housing scheme, would go along way to relieving their problems.

Retailers’: they would be difficult to help. They proliferated due to the population boom, the allure of the city, and the desire to escape drudgery of farm/village life. Living in the city, with highly diminishing returns on their retail trades, their children suffer neglect and as a consequence lack of education. They buy all their needs; they bear and ill-support large familie; and as a consequence their children form the largest percentage of miscreants. They stand to benefit from effective public service delivery; particularly education, health and national security. They are in need of education on population control for their and society’s interest.

The Academia’s: pampered, highly self opinionated; this class of the electorate are the ones who are in charge of producing the nation’s parasitic elites. Since university education is an adornment, a ruling President cannot afford to keep this class restive. In normal societies, (ours is far from normal) they should serve as a significant part of the engine of growth. An intellectual such as Yar’Adua should be conversant with their antics and know how to pacify them. What should be recommended however is to find a way to motivate them to give their best for the advancement of the nation. When the academic timetable is disrupted, they make hay running their private consultancies while the society suffers, and their salaries assured.

The Military’s: unlike Obasanjo, Yar’Adua is not their man. There is the added task of him winning their confidence and knowing how to motivate them. We do not have the muscle to concoct spurious reasons to invade other countries. But our democracy is in fragile state if we have to resort to the use of military to suppress internal dissent. Intensive training,           special educational and health services concessions; comfortable barracks an d the likes, may go along way in dissuading this class from making a call to the radio station.

In a nutshell: nothing stops Yar’Adua from being a good President unless his vision is poor, or he cannot use the vision of others; or Nigerians being what we are, expect miracles overnight. We welcome this quite gentleman to the helms of affairs of this ‘ship’ called Nigeria; which is at present in high seas, with all the elements at their meanest. May God guide him and us to build a better tomorrow, amen.